


Scenes from a Warehouse

by hhertzof



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: Artifacts, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-29
Updated: 2013-06-29
Packaged: 2017-12-16 12:44:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/862163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/pseuds/hhertzof
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Like all artifact hunts, this one's getting a bit weird.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scenes from a Warehouse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Phantom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phantom/gifts).



Helena stared out the window wondering who would build a water tower in the middle of the city. A rap at the door shook her out of her reverie.

She turned to see Pete, his arms overflowing with paper bags, the name of a major fast food chain clearly marked on each one.

"D'ya think we'll have enough?," Pete asked, dumping the bags on the bed.

"More than enough, I should think. What have you done with Myka?" she countered, her eyes flicking to the bags. He was such fun to needle.

But he didn't take the bait. "She's got the drinks. I thought she was right behind me." He stared at the door like a bewildered puppy who had lost his owner.

Helena almost felt sorry for him. Almost. Her reply was forestalled by a bang on the door, as though someone had kicked it.

Pete beat her to the door. "Sorry, Myka. I could have sworn you got off the elevator with me."

"I did." Two bottles of soda joined the food on the bed. "It happened again. And I didn't drop the bottles in time to get a reading." Myka perched on the bed and grabbed one of the bags. "I'm starving."

"Shouldn't we wait for the others?" Pete asked.

"They'll be here soon." Myka brushed off the question and unwrapped a burger. "So we've got a time distortion field coupled with an immense hunger when one escapes. And from my end, it wasn't like I'd slowed down, it was like Pete sped up."

"But you were only a minute or two behind me," Pete added. "I literally just got here a minute before you did."

"You can't have. It must have been longer than that," Myka insisted.

"Check your watches?" Helena offered. They were once again making her wonder how they'd managed to be so successful as Warehouse agents, and she didn't have the energy for this.

"3:15," Myka said.

"Same here." Pete grabbed one of the bags and dug in. "So it's only your perception of time that slowed."

* * *

Claudia climbed the stairs slowly, Tesla at the ready. Jinxy had her back and that was all she needed. "Come out, come out wherever you are," she called.

"Nothing down here." Jinks said from behind her.

She didn't turn around. "She's in here somewhere."

"And lunch is up there," he gestured up. "Three more flights to go. Can't we do this a little quicker?"

"Only if you want to maybe miss something important, Jinxy." Claudia went up slowly to the next landing, and carefully looked around the turn. "Not here, either. I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever find her again."

The next three flights went in pretty much the same way, with no sign of the girl with the really long ears. Finally, Claudia pushed open the door that led to their floor.

"Can we take a break for lunch, now?" Jinks asked. "I'm about to expire from hunger."

"You've been spending too much time with Pete lately. We'll have to fix that."

Steve had no doubt she could do just that.

* * *

Artie flicked open the Farnsworth again. "Pick up, Pete. Myka. Anyone?" No one answered. This was no change from the last three times he'd tried and he had to admit that something had gone badly wrong. He opened the door into the warehouse and let his eyes scan the aisles. Nothing unusual caught his eye - well, nothing more unusal than usual. 

They'd been last heard from in the Blinovitch alcove. Myka had called to let him know they'd tracked down the temporal aberrations to one of the many pocket watches stored there.

Half the stuff was Helena's attempts at making a time machine. Was she playing them again or was she caught up in it too?

Artie hurried down the stairs and grabbed a golf cart. It wasn't far, but he'd go faster on wheels than he would on foot.

* * *

Something was wrong. Something - Helena couldn't put a finger on it, but _something_ wasn't right about this. She looked out the window again. "What city are we in?"

"Cincinnati." "Denver." "Houston." "Toronto." The other four looked at each other in alarm.

"How did we get here?" Helena asked. "What day is it?" "What are we looking for?"

Four different answers for each of the questions.

"That's not good," Pete said.

"That we don't know where we are or why we're here?" Claudia asked.

"Well, that too, but I was referring to that." Pete pointed at one of the walls which had gone all wavery. "Brace yourself!"

They did, the world swirled around them and a flash of light caused them all to blink.

When they opened their eyes, they were in a supermarket. It was dark outside and they were the only people in the building.

"I think it came from in here," Claudia said, motioning for the others to follow. The book had to be somewhere in this building. They'd only been searching for it _forever_.

"No, this isn't right. Is it?" Pete shook his head as if to clear it. "Weren't we just in a hotel?"

A few minutes of debate and the walls started to waver again. 

"Something's messing with our heads," Claudia said. "I don't approve."

When they opened their eyes again they were in a truck stop looking for an antique coin. When Myka started to pull out of it, Claudia took her hand and shook her head, a finger pressed to her lips.

"I think it's in here," Steve said, a little stiltedly. He opened the door to the office.

It was an ordinary office. A little messy, perhaps, but work messy, not "someone's been here and went through all my stuff." They all pulled on gloves and spread out without consulting each other, each looking for something out of the ordinary that wasn't a gold coin or a book.

* * *

The air itself seemed to shimmer, making Artie sure he was close. He glanced over the tags on the nearby artifacts. Disney, D.W. Griffith, Farnsworth, before his eyes fell on the one he knew had to be _the one_. A brick from the Warner Brothers back lot wasn't where it was supposed to be.

He found it, lodged 10 feet away, in the cabinet of one of the earliest TV prototypes, and there, on the screen of the TV in brilliant black and white were his team, rummaging through a wild west saloon. He could clearly see an anachronistic water tower reflected in the mirror behind the bar.

"Idiots," he muttered at the screen, "you need the brick." It was lying there on the bar, plain as day, but none of them seemed to see it. And then just as Claudia started to rummage near it, it vanished.

* * *

They would have missed it if Pete hadn't tripped over it. A plain red brick smack dab in the center of the plush carpet in the lobby. Pete fumbled with it for a few minutes before Claudia had the bright idea of sticking a bag under his hands and letting the brick fall in.

The world wavered one last time and the five of them found themselves back in the warehouse, staring at Artie.

"Give me that." He grabbed the bag from them without as much as a by-your-leave. "I've been standing here half an hour watching you all stumble around looking at everything except this brick."

"We're all okay, if that's what you're trying to ask," Pete replied automatically.

"What was that thing?" Helena asked.

"One of the original bricks from the Warner Brothers' lot," Artie said, as though it were obvious. "It must have fallen into that TV and caused a weird reaction. While I was watching, it kept changing channels."

"Movie or tv sets!" Claudia's eyes lit up. "We were going through scene changes. It was rewriting the plot so it wouldn't be found."

"Trust Pete's big feet to find it anyway," Jinks added, automatically moving out of Pete's reach, just in case.

Pete glared at him instead. "It was sort of amazing, wasn't it?"

"Confusing, perhaps. I'd hardly call it amazing. And weren't you the one who sent the brick flying in the first place?" Helena asked.

Pete winced. "You can't expect a brick to have any sense of plot or character. We should probably count ourselves lucky we didn't take a wrong turn at Albuquerque."


End file.
